Worth the weight, student-designed bridges set new records

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom BRIDGING THE GAP —  SeDoMoCha Middle School eighth-grader Alicia Chambers places her bridge to be tested on June 16 in the annual bridge-building competition in teacher Ryan Nickerson’s math classes. Students designed and created popsicle stick structures to either be the most aesthetically pleasing, most efficient (Chambers was part of the winning group in this category) or hold the greatest amount of weight.

    By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Eighth-graders at the SeDoMoCha Middle School were able to put their math lessons to use as as they designed and then built bridges out of popsicle sticks. Working in small groups, the students had budgets to follow as they needed to make the best use of the available popsicle sticks, glue and tape — each coming with a price tag — to design replica structures that could hold the most weight, be the most efficient or be deemed the most aesthetically pleasing bridge in the eyes of the judge.

On the morning of June 16 the entire eighth-grade gathered in the science classroom to put the bridges to the test with the structures placed over a several-foot-wide gap between two tables with mats set up to protect the floor from any falling weights.

   First up were the entrants in the aesthetic category.

“For these ones they only have to hold five pounds for 30 seconds or so,” math teacher Ryan Nickerson said.

One by one, several groups came to the front to test their bridges as their peers looked on. Nickerson placed a five-pound weight on the bridge as the structures held, and the other grade 8 teachers took notes to see which bridge was the most pleasing to the eye.

“You want a bridge that holds a large amount of weight but doesn’t weigh a lot,” Nickerson said about the most efficient category. Students whose groups had funds leftover in their budgets could choose to purchase more tape from Nickerson to provide some added strength to their bridges.

The most efficient bridges were stacked with an increasing amount of weight, which eventually caused some of the popsicle sticks to crack and then break with the entire bridge finally giving way. This same procedure was used for the the third and final bridge category, the most total weight.

Nickerson has had his students build bridges for several years and in 2014 a group set a record with 162.5 pounds held. This year a trio of eighth-graders surpassed this mark and reached 210 pounds, but once the record was surpassed several other groups had not yet tested their creations.

Becky Fishburn-Batey, Cailin Seavey and Mariah Poulin got close to the 200-pound mark as Nickerson increased the load five pounds at a time. The girls’ bridge successfully held 210 pounds to tie the recently set mark and then surpassed the total with 215 pounds.

“The bridge did not break, it just slipped off the edge of the table so it probably could have held a little more,” Nickerson said, as the structure began to buckle under the 215 pounds but was not damaged until it slipped off the table.

Fishburn-Batey, Seavey and Poulin held the grade 8 bridge record for only a few minutes. The very last test turned out to be on the strongest bridge as Michaleb Niles, Mason McLeish and Caleb Labb became the third group of the day to surpass the pre-2015 record. Their bridge got up to 230 pounds to set the all-time record.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

THE WEIGHTING IS THE HARDEST PART — Eighth-graders, from left, Rosie Buzzelli, Kenzie Beaudry and Lexi London look on as SeDoMoCha grade 8 math teacher Ryan Nickerson adds to the load placed on their bridge. Three groups this year ended up surpassing the old mark of 162.5 pounds successfully held, with the bar now set at 230 pounds.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

CAREFUL TAPING  — Hannah Sprecher adds some strips of tape to the bridge made by she and Kenzie McLeod, looking on, for their math class project. Behind McLeod is the next group, Shawna Greenlaw and Albert Sudsbury.